Airbnb now lets you split the cost of group trips

Going on that ten-person trip just got a whole lot easier.

Calling all group travellers: Airbnb just made planning that ten-person trip ten times easier. In what we're calling a true holiday miracle, the hospitality service this morning unveiled their new split pay tool, which allows travellers to divide up reservation costs. You'll never have to front the whole sum (and impatiently wait for your friends to transfer you) again.

This new feature grew out of a survey Airbnb conducted last Christmas, which asked customers what they'd like to see the company to launch in 2017 — group payment was a resounding top choice. Now, Airbnb is the first company of its kind to offer travellers global split payments, which will be available in all 191 countries/territories they service. And with New Year's Eve — the biggest night for group travel — right around the corner, now is the perfect time to book that group trip.

Airbnb's split pay feature functions similarly to Uber's: You make the reservation first, and then invite friends to pay via link or email. The payment is then divided into shares, and the reservation is put on hold until everything is paid in full. There's a payment deadline of 72 hours, thankfully, which can help you nudge your more forgetful friends — you can even check their status in the "Your Trips" section. If they don't pay, the reservation is automatically cancelled, and those who already paid will be refunded a portion of their payment. You are allowed to pay for someone else's share or knock out the remaining balance, but consider yourself warned: After recently surveying 2,000 American travellers, Airbnb found that a whopping 43 percent of group travelers reported losing $1,000 or more in repayments, and 18 percent of frequent group-trippers lost $10,000 or more. Yikes. As we say here, choose your friends wisely — especially those you travel with.

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